“What’s wrong?” Luke asked Allen.

  “It’s our profit margins, we’ve got serious long term problems,” Allen replied and set down his laptop on Luke’s workbench.

  “How? We’re raking in the money, aren’t we?”

  Allen tapped the laptop screen. “The problem is that we are reaching market saturation. The price of mana cores was stable because the supply was stable. You and I have been providing enough cores to send that out of whack. The price has dipped to about half of what it was before we started flooding the North American market.”

  “What can we do?” Luke said and peered at the spreadsheets.

  “There isn’t much we can do. Only so many people want a mana core, and they last a while. I still haven’t sold off all the cores you got from the Hive Wolves. I’ve been slowly releasing them so I don’t crater the market, ” Allen said and leaned back in his ergonomic chair.

  “What about selling them overseas? You said we are flooding the North American market, what about Europe and China?”

  “There are problems there too. China has been hunting monsters since day one, they have a surplus of monster cores over there. Europe still has a high demand, but to get the cores over there you have to pay some crazy high export and import taxes. We would still make a profit with a large batch, but it wouldn’t take long before we saturate that market too.”

  Luke sat down heavily.

  Allen sighed. “I think we have to face the facts. We didn’t discover something everyone else missed. There is a reason no one else has been doing this. The market just doesn’t have the demand for heavy monster core farming.”

  “How bad is it? The finances, I mean.”

  “Nothing is bad, yet. We own this warehouse, free and clear. The company has half a million in the bank. We don’t have any outstanding loans. That’s fantastic for any business, let alone one as new as ours. But we can’t expect as much money to keep flowing anymore. We’ll have to curtail all future spending.”

  “I’m assuming we’ll have to eliminate bonuses for turning in ten cores at once.”

  “At least, yeah. We’ll have to let some people go too. We can easily handle the salary of me and you plus six Jaegers, but after that we start breaking even and it’s not worth it anymore.”

  “So I have to fire people? I just hired them! It hasn’t even been a month yet. Ugh. This isn’t what I wanted when I founded my own company. I just wanted stacks of cash big enough to swim in.”

  Allen laughed. “You and me both.”

  They lapsed into silence, neither of them coming up with a solution to the problem yet. Luke pulled out his phone, habitually fiddling with it. He saw a new email and opened it up. His eyes got wider and wider as he read.

  Allen noticed the reaction and said, “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s an email invite.” Luke said and handed over his phone. “It’s from Atticus, or rather his company. We are cordially invited to pitch our company so they can invest in it.”

  Allen barked out a laugh and slammed the table. “This is perfect! It means Atticus Adelson will stop attacking you and we can sell the company based on our previous earnings over the last few months. Our valuation will be sky high. He won’t know that sales pace is unsustainable until it’s too late.”

  “Yeah, seems like my moves on Kalibutan really rattled him,” Luke said and scratched his neck. “Still. Not sure if I want to sell the company. We’ve poured a lot of time and effort into this thing and I’d hate to give up so soon.”

  “Luke. This isn’t giving up, this is winning. You were just saying you wanted to swim in piles of cash, this is literally your chance. This is our chance. I’m the CFO, remember? What happens to this company matters to me too.”

  “Well, the invite just says invest, it doesn’t say they want to buy the company,” Luke hedged. “But you are right. This is your company too, we need to make the decision together. We’ll go to the meeting together. I’ll reply and say we can meet on Friday as requested,” Luke said and quickly fired off an email.

  Allen was excited and hurried off to create financial predictions. He mumbled to himself, “They are going to overpay, but that’s what you get when you calculate EBITA without a real history.”

  ???

  Cormac grunted. “It’s time for the monthly slime harvest. You’ll need to escort the alchemists into the southern forest and protect them as they collect enough essence to supply the next month’s potions.”

  Luke gave him distracted jazz hands. The Seneschal still looked like shit. He had gotten a healing potion yesterday when Luke dropped him off at the healers/alchemists, but it clearly wasn’t enough. Bruises covered most of his face and arms.

  “Are you going to be ok? Does your condition mean that you heal slower?”

  “I will be healed by tomorrow, Luke of Machines. Our lord wants me to remember his admonishment, and I am ensuring that will happen and saving myself some money at the same time.”

  “It’s not right. He made the mistake, not you. He’s an asshole abuser who wants you to blame yourself.”

  Cormac’s expression hardened. “Do not speak ill of my lord in my presence.”

  Luke sighed. “Fine, let’s get the harvesting done. I’m assuming I need to escort the three elves over there wearing all black?”

  “That’s correct. They will handle harvesting and do some field distillation. Your only task will be to protect them from other monsters.” Cormac said. He waved his large green hand and gestured for the elves to move closer. “Honored alchemists, meet Luke of Machines. He and his team will be providing excellent protection for you. Luke of Machines, meet Eghe Osamuyi of Alchemy, Tofel Enatama of Alchemy, and Elo Kadiri of Alchemy. They are the backbone of our estate village’s economy. Please treat them well and ensure their work remains safe.”

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  Luke surprised himself by remembering their names. Memory 12 wasn’t just a number on his stat screen. “Glad to meet you, Osamuyi, Tofel, and Kadiri of Alchemy. Are we just harvesting the red slimes today or the purple and yellow ones too?”

  Tofel stepped forward. He was the oldest of the three and wore long black robes that reminded him of a priest’s frock with a hood. He had slicked back hair, gray with a tinge of green. The other two elves wore large baskets on their back, but he carried a caldron full of tools. “Good to meet you too, Luke of Machines. Our priority is red slimes, but I would appreciate the chance to collect purple and yellow ones as well. Our schedule only allows for this single day of harvesting though, so we will have to see how much time we have left after we have collected our quota.”

  “One Kalibutan day, right? We’ll have to split the harvest in two then. Humans sleep more often than your people. We’ll work for eight hours, take a break for sleep, and then come back for another eight hours. Sorry if that cuts into your harvesting time. We can escort you more than just today if that works.”

  Tofel’s shoulder’s slumped. “No, that won’t work. Our distillation and brewing schedule can’t be interrupted or we will lose the whole batch. If you could find a way to escort us for longer, that would be wonderful, but I wouldn’t want tired protectors.”

  “I’ll see what we can do. Let’s head out so we can take advantage of what time we do have,” Luke said.

  He gestured to the rest of his squad that they were heading out. He had the other new hires with him today, Daniel, Gina, Max, and Jeff. Normally Sandwich would round out their squad but Bumblebee had asked to swap with him today. He brought up the rear of their formation and kept an eye out. He was probably itching to try out his new skill after hitting level eighteen in his Driver class. Slipstream would let him rush to the front while threading through everyone else in the way.

  Luke had been looking forward to practicing his own new skills, Phantom Shot and Summon Vehicle. There were dozens of reasons he shouldn’t show off how many skills he had to the elves around him, so he had to pick one to reveal.

  Summon Vehicle was a wonderfully flexible skill, but he wouldn’t be practicing it today. He had to ‘load up’ vehicles first before he could summon them, and the only one he had loaded at the moment was the mech he was already wearing. He had sent a message to Agent Brown to have him set up a visit to the nearby army base so he could load up war vehicles. Until then, his practice would be best done with Phantom Shot.

  Their group walked into the forest at a steady pace. Slower than Luke was used to since the elves were with them. But not that slow, they clearly kept in shape. Either that or elves were naturally more fit than humans since they grew up in a mana saturated world.

  Once they arrived in the right area, they slowed down and headed off the path. Luke found himself wishing that his magic drone hadn’t been disintegrated again. They would be able to spot the hiding slimes easier. He told himself to make two magic drones next time. With his luck maybe three would be better.

  “Bumblebee, you take point. You are better at spotting slimes before they attack.”

  Bumblebee dashed to the front, weaving through everyone just like Luke predicted. “Bossman, you need to put points into Perception. It’s important.”

  “I did put points into Perception. I just don’t want a repeat of last time,” Luke grumped.

  Bumblebee snickered and took the lead. Luke followed behind with the elves behind him. Daniel and Gina took up positions to the left and right, and Max and Jeff brought up the rear.

  It didn’t take long for them to run into the first monster. A red slime dropped out from a nearby tree, tentacles spread wide to latch onto Bumblebee. He slipped out of the way without even looking up. Once it landed, he zapped it with a spell rifle lightning bolt. Two more shots killed it. Red acid dripped from the three holes the magnets punched in its thick skin.

  Luke looked back to see Daniel fumbling with his sword. The stylish Asian guy hadn’t been ready for action and was still trying to react to the slime after it was dead. He shook his head. At least the other three were alert. The short Gina in particular looked like she was just hoping the next monster attacked her.

  “Alright everyone, faces out. Keep an eye out for monsters while the alchemists do their thing,” Luke said.

  He didn’t follow his own command though, instead watching as the elvish assistants, Osamuyi and Kadiri, put on gloves and took out shiny tongs from Tofel’s cauldron. Instead of normal grippers, these tongs looked like metal flyswatters. The extra surface area allowed them to pick up the dead slime and carry it over to the cauldron.

  In the meantime, Tofel had emptied out the cauldron and extended its tripod legs. Once his assistants placed the acid jelly into the metal pot, he added in a spoonful of powder and a drop of green liquid. He stirred it up with a glass rod and touched a rune on the side and took a few steps back.

  Luke was prepared for a sudden influx of fire, but the cauldron's heating was much more subdued. The bottom turned slightly redder, but no flames appeared. Tiny bubbles formed around the edge of the slime and little wisps of steam curled up. Quicker than expected, the concoction was at a fast boil. Steam was billowing out from the cauldron in a steady stream. Luke was glad he had installed the air filtration system in all the suits. The elves weren’t wearing masks but he was pretty sure that steam was toxic.

  “Jinx, don’t stand so close,” Luke said.

  The cat didn’t look at him, but still wandered away, threading through Daniel’s legs to see if she could trip him up.

  The elf let it boil for a minute and then Tofel touched a few more runes. The boiling quickly stopped and the remaining liquid cooled down quickly. The elf grabbed wooden paddles and shaped the quickly cooling block of slime.

  When a rime of frost appeared on the cauldron’s rim, Tofel deactivated the ice rune and scooped out the alchemical ingredient with the paddles. He held it up to the sun and nodded to himself.

  “Good quality. Auspicious that we found a slime so quickly too.”

  “This is their territory,” Luke said. “You can’t walk far without running into one.”

  “I hope that is the case. It seems like whenever harvest day comes, the little acid assholes go into hiding.”

  Luke chuckled. “We’ll just have to see. Every time we’ve done a sweep of the area we’ve had dozens attack us.”

  Tofel dropped the block of concentrated slime into one of their baskets and instructed his assistants to pack up. While they worked Luke gave his own assistants an instruction, not to waste ammo on slimes. He wanted to use his new skill on them.

  Once they were packed up, they moved a few hundred feet further. Unsurprisingly, Bumblebee was targeted again, this time a slime ambush from the ground. He danced out of the way and looked towards Luke.

  Luke had already rushed forward and was aiming his arm cannon at the jiggly slime as it landed. Instead of firing a magnet, he pushed mana into his Phantom Shot.

  A huge ghostly shape appeared around his arm and shot forward. Even with his Acuity giving him a brief moment of slowed time, he was only just barely able to see its shape. It looked like a cartoon version of a bullet, grey with violet highlights. The ghostly bullet shot forward and passed through the monster and into the ground. The dirt wasn’t even disturbed.

  Luke almost fired again, but then a small mana core formed in its center. He grinned ear to ear. One shot, one kill. He checked his mana and the grin slid off his face. That had cost him six points of mana. That was so expensive. He could only do that four times before he was completely out of mana.

  Luke nodded to himself at the notice. All skills got better when they leveled up. Maybe this one would get more efficient. He would just have to practice a lot with the skill until he got to a high enough level.

  “Is the whole day going to be this easy?” Jeff asked.

  Everyone turned and stared at him.

  Gina smacked him upside the head, metal clanging on chitin. “Don’t jinx us, you idiot.”